Ann, Michelle, and Rebecca. Three disgruntled young ladies leaving the school grounds. Not disgruntled to be leaving, just a little put out because they were leaving an hour late due to a completely unfair detention.
They'd explained to Mr Brandis that it had just been a practical joke. Everyone had laughed, even Nigel, and he'd been the victim. It wasn't as though anyone had got hurt. Well, not really hurt. When Nigel stopped laughing and stood up he'd promptly fallen down again and everyone had laughed a second time. Except Nigel. He was too busy saying some really rude things about moronic practical jokers and a broken ankle. It hadn't even been broken, so they failed to see why he made such a fuss. It was just a sprain and he'd be fine in a few days. Really, it was a Friday and he could relax for the whole weekend. He wouldn't even have to miss any school.
Did Mr Brandis see it that way? Chance would be a fine thing. He'd got all nasty and sarcastic and been really very rude, treating them like little girls. Then he'd finished it up with a detention and they had to take notes home to their parents. They would have ditched the notes as a matter of course but Mr Brandis insisted that they be returned on Monday with their mothers' signatures on them. So unfair. They'd considered signing themselves but he'd scotched that. He'd promised to ring their parents to check that they were the ones who signed. The man had no trust in him. It must be sad to be a cynical old man like him.
OK, so he wasn't really all that old, but he acted as if he was fifty, all 'I know more than you ever will' and seemed to consider them to be pre-teens. Sheesh -- didn't he know that even Becky was eighteen and she was the youngest of them?
The three girls walked along, grumbling to themselves about how unfair life was at times. They heaped calumny upon poor Nigel. What a wimp to be making such a fuss about a little sprain. As for Mr Brandis, words failed them. Still, they did seem to find a lot of words to describe just how words failed them, freely casting aspersions upon the man.
"Becky, has your brother still got those spray cans he was using to repaint that old car of his or did he throw them out?" asked Ann.
"Still got them, I think," said Becky. "At least he kept the ones with paint in them since he might want to touch up the old bomb a bit."
"The way he drives he'll probably have to touch up the old bomb a lot," laughed Michelle. "Why do you want the paint, Ann?"
"Oh, I just thought it might be interesting to put up a little harmless graffiti," Ann said.
"The cops are cracking down on that," Becky said. "You're allowed to graffiti in a couple of lanes as long as you've got some skill. Anywhere else and the cops would be all over you. We're not exactly skilled in the graffiti department. The real graffiti artists would be all over us if we mucked up their work."
"Oh, I was thinking we'd do it somewhere out of the public eye. Someplace private. Someplace where the cops wouldn't see it or see us doing it. Someplace like the back of Mr Brandis's house."
The three of them were silent for a while as they considered this idea.
"Possibly something along the lines of rude descriptions of Mr Brandis?" said Michelle.
"We'd have to keep it to short words so that we could finish quickly," observed Becky. "We wouldn't want to be so long doing it that we got caught."
"Do we know his address?" asked Michelle.
"Yes, I do," said Ann. "He's got a weatherboard house so the paint won't do any real damage. He can just paint over it. It may even make his house look better."
"True. We'd be doing him a favour," agreed Becky.
The three girls laughed.
"What happens if we get caught?" asked Michelle.
"We'll get a slap on the wrist. The police aren't going to make a fuss about something like that and Mr Brandis would look a fool if he pressed charges against his students for a practical joke. He'd probably yell at us and tell our parents but we could live with that. So what if we get grounded for a week or so? We've been grounded before. Besides, we'll just task care not to get caught. He lives alone. We'll just do it either when he's out or asleep."
"Out, would be my preference," said Michelle. "Asleep, he might wake up and catch us."
"Bobby is going to the football with friends tomorrow," said Becky. "They're going in his mate's car. I'm sure I can persuade him to lend me his car for the afternoon as long as we promise to keep the tank filled. We can hang about and watch for Mr Brandis to go out. He'll probably go to the game as well. It's supposed to be a big one."
The girls found that their plans went remarkably smoothly. Bobby didn't mind his sister borrowing his car as long as she knew it had hardly any fuel in it and she would need to put some in if she wanted to go further than the local garage. He still had half a dozen spray cans in the garage. Knowing that he wouldn't mind her borrowing them Becky didn't bother asking, just tossing them in the back of the car when it was time to go.
With more fuel in the car the girls drove over to where Mr Brandis resided, parking opposite a park a little further down the street.
"That's his place," said Ann, pointing. "He's currently home as I can see his car. I know it's his as I checked at school. I initially thought about spraying his car but I'm told it costs a fortune to repaint them and we'd have got into real trouble over it."
"That fortune is the reason Bobby painted this car," said Becky. "The way this car now looks shows why most people pay a fortune to have it properly done."
For the next half an hour they talked and listened to music, wishing Mr Brandis would leave. Then Michelle gave them a heads up.
"He's getting in his car now," she told them.
The girls turned to watch as Mr Brandis emerged from his drive and drove off, passing them scant moments later.
"The sports ground is that way isn't it?" asked Becky.
"It is," assented Michelle. "He's off to watch the game. Let's go."
They drove the short distance to Mr Brandis's house and parked.
"Um, how do we know the house is empty?" asked Ann.
"That's an easy one," said Becky. "I'll go and knock on the front door. If anyone answers I'll say I'm at the wrong address and leave. Mr Brandis won't be there and if anyone else is they won't know who I am."
A minute later Becky was beckoning them in and, grabbing the spray cans, the other two girls joined them. Heading into the back yard they looked at the wall.
"I wonder how long it will be before he notices what we've done," Ann said with a giggle.
"Dunno. It could be days if he doesn't go out into the backyard much. I mean, how often do you go into your backyard?"
"Not often," admitted Michelle. "When I was younger, yes, but nowadays?" She shrugged.
